The following is a treatment I have written for our animation. It serves two purposes. It provides Mitchell with a context in which to begin preliminary concept art work. It also acts as a guide for Robert and I when we go to write the full script after the script writing workshop.
Night Life
Themes: Freedom, The pursuit of freedom, Consequences and implications, the desire by some to suppress the freedom of others.
Setting: Space, Earth.
Premise:
The maincharacters are the two stars, which the short film will focus on. They are bored by their surroundings and yearn to be free set out to explore on their own without the knowledge of their parents. They have fun at first and cause mischief in their wake but soon learn their actions have consequences as they awaken a dormant black hole monster that’s only seeks to consume and destroy everything in its path. This not only threatens themselves and the ones they love.
One boy and one girl will be present at the beginning and end, to ground the concept as a child’s fantasy. They are young children. They are lifelong friends and are bound by their mischievous natures. The kids act as bookends for the story. In the beginning of the film we see them speculating on whether there is any life ‘up there’ and at the end we see their conclusion.
Characters:
The boy star is foolish, brave, stubborn, and carries himself with an arrogance and bravado. He’s all this despite his small size and young age.
The girl star is intelligent, strong willed, resourceful, brave and a tom boy.
The Antagonist is a “black hole monster”. He is an ancient being, his only instinct being to destroy everything in his path. He is menacing, with a single minded in nature.
The star’s parents will also feature in the story. They will search frantically for them when they see that their kids are missing. They also play an important part in the conclusion of the story.
The main characters will encounter two little girls and interact with them. One will be curious and wondrous the other will be afraid and flee in terror.
Rough Initial Outline:
We open with the credits rolling with stars in the background we then pan down to see a couple sitting star gazing. One ask the others if they think that they are alive up there (or something along those lines).
We pan up to set our scene. We see a community of characterised stars that mirrors a human Town or City.
The two kids sneak off after creating a distraction from school while their supervisors aren’t looking.
The kids cause mischief including:
They harass the constellations (Who will be personified).
They fly down to earth and encounter a pair of kids. One of them transforms into an exact replica of one of them. One giggles and hides behind her hands shyly while the other flees in terror.
Not to be outdone the other star seeing a nearby field with cows in it assumes the shape of a cow and much to their fright and surprise jumps over the moon.
Soon after this they awaken the monster that begins to pursue him and their parents notice they are gone and go after them.
The monster destroys a lot in his pursuit of the pair and he eventually corners them but their parents arrive just in time.
The monster almost gets one of them but he/she outsmarts it causing it to consume itself. However it is a tense moment as in the resulting flash of light we aren’t sure if he/she has made it.
Reunited they shine together happy that they are all safe, lesson have been learned.
We pan out but still see them shining in the distance and see the couple we saw at the start again. The one who was asked the question responds “neh!” (or something along those lines but we know different).
We pan back up and end credits roll against the night sky.
It is symbolic of our inherent desire for freedom from a very young age. We may get what we want but it is a responsibility as there can be consequences. Equally however there are forces that are seeking to suppress this freedom sometimes at any cost. But what’s important is that if even one brave person stands up against these forces that can be a catalyst for change and convince others to stand up too.
Note: Possibility of an alternative ending where one stands up to the monster and it causes the rest who were afraid before, to follow suit but it’s essentially the same message.
Note: Possibility of another alternative ending where either one of the stars is killed or permanently separated from the rest of them.
-Ken